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I GREW UP knowing I was a second class citizen but it was alright, it was normal. It was grand like you’d never question it.
John Connors spoke to TheJournal.ie about how he felt growing up as a Traveller in Ireland. The activist and actor said the word ‘knacker’ was something he was called in school everyday.
“I remember the first time I was called it. I was four and in junior infants. I went home and I asked my mam what a knacker was and I could see the look on her face.
That’s when it all started. That’s when I realised I was different from other children.
Speaking about the effect of the word, Connors spoke about recent times when he would be relaxing with friends, and friends of friends, and how somebody would say it and instantly he would feel ‘put in his place’ and ashamed.
“We’d all be just sitting down in a pub, drinking Guinness, having singsongs. Irishmen – I’m not a Traveller, they’re not settled people – all just Irishmen, and then all of a sudden one of them would say the word ‘knackers’ and they’d be referring to Travellers.
And straight away my heart beats a bit quicker and I just get nervous and ashamed. I just feel like I’ve been stripped back, like I thought everything was alright and now I’m just this size. It just makes me feel that small.
“My natural reaction about six or seven years ago was to break their jaw, but then I learned that’s not very helpful because then you just have a broken jaw you have to deal with.
“Now I ask them about the word knacker and explain what the definition is, explain what I am, and explain that they are two very different things.
“It’s always going to be deeply offensive to us but there’s no point in weighing in on it because it will never change. It’s always going to affect me but I think it’s impossible to overcome it.”
‘I’ll never live in a house again’
The third and final programme in Connor’s three-part series, The Travellers, airs tonight.
The actor says he had no expectations about how the documentary would be viewed but that he has received very positive feedback from the settled community, with many people telling him that it has changed how they view Travellers.
He added that he wanted Traveller people to learn and feel pride when watching the programme.
My intention was always to show the truth because I’ve seen so many documentaries that were just lies.My idea was to come in and tell the truth and tell the stories and let people tell the stories … that’s the Irish way.
“We’re just presenting facts and stories and let people figure it out for themselves.”
Connors described how he came across a lot of new information about Travellers while working on the series, “A lot of the stuff I wouldn’t have known myself.
“We always had a sense that we’re really Irish but never looked into it … what I know now is that a lot of our traditions, and a big part of our culture, comes from Gaelic Ireland and we were lucky enough to hold onto them.
If you look around the 1500s, the Irish were called the nomadic people, or the wandering Irish, because the vast majority of the people actually travelled.
“When the British colonised us, one of the things they wanted to do was to get the Irish to settle. We were always a travelling country, they wanted to get us to settle so we could pay taxes, that was the main objective, to get rid of the Gaelic culture.
Gaelic culture was based around family and living around your family … we’re still trying to live around each other in our halting sites which is a modern-day version of that.
Last year Connors moved back to the halting site in Darndale where he grew up and he says he is “way happier” since.
He moved because his mother was suffering from arthritis and there was no electricity in the camp at the time.
I’ll never live in a house again, the only way I’ll leave the site is in a coffin. I love it, my family all around me.
“It’s the way I grew up for 17 years of my life so I’ll never change now.”
John Connors: The Travellers airs on RTÉ 1 at 9.35pm.
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I hope she never sees the light of day again
The sickening thing is , she will .
Will she even do time I wonder
I doubt it. It’ll be a Suspended sentence
This is Ireland.
She’ll most likely, get a fully furnished new house to add to her previous portfolio of 3.
A new car.
A raise in her benefits.
New clothes.
And hundreds of thousands of Euro in medical and counselling expenses.
This woman does not deserve to call herself a mother. She’s nothing but a disgusting human. Fair play to those kids for going through with this case and sorry to hear this was allowed to carry on for so long.
How did she get bail? Vile human being, I hope she gets a proper sentence and the kids get the love and help they need.
How could this continue over time without something being done? Neighbours aware, school aware of issues. What did social services do here? This is madness.
Yes, Greg, I wonder what Social Services did here, and what the ISPCC did here, too.
It seems to just have been allowed to continue for 5 years.
It’s astounding, with Child Abuse supposedly being taken so seriously.
I can’t understand what makes someone do that to kids, any kids. I just hope that they get the love and attention that they deserve now as young adults.
Her defense team? Who paid for that I wonder?
Where is/are the father(s)?
How is this tolerated in the 21st century?
She may not even know who the fathers are.
Disgusting! Poor children, God love them
Why didn’t the neighbours report her?
What a twisted bitch
I heard some of the mothers defence evidence reported on the radio today in relation to the two boys having their hair pulled out by her…….
“She said the boys were exaggerating, yes, she said, she had to hold them forcibly in a headlock and it took some power to force the neck of the Fairy washing liquid bottle past their clenched teeth as they struggled and won’t allow her to pour the washing up liquid in their mouths because they said a rude word but she didn’t pull out clumps of hair”
That was her defence on that charge alone.
She didn’t see anything wrong with it, that was her defence………What an evil woman.
She is evil, I hope that she never gets out.
It wasn’t just her that failed the children, why were they left in her care for so long, why did it take so long to bring her to court?
Why was there a delay of 5 years from when social services got involved until the kids were taken from this vile evil woman
The poor kids. I hope they can go on to lead normal happy lives.
This evil piece of sc#m should be fed on bread and water for the rest of her miserable life
I hope she gets the help she needs, and for the children’s sake that she is able to establish a normal relationship with them in time.
Joe, I would say that the relationship is way beyond repair.
‘The help she needs’?!! Are you for real Joe?
Why is every perpetrator of horrific crimes given the tag of ‘victim’? Some people are just evil, nasty, deplorable animals and should be disposed of.
After witnessing first hand similar events above I can say from my own experience that forgiveness comes in time. May be a few years, may take decades, the child will still want to be loved / accepted by the parent. They may have a chance at a relationship of some sort depending on the child or no relationship at all depending on the child. The child will also feel a degree of guilt and responsibility even though the child is 100% innocent the guilt is still there.
The child’s want/need to be loved and wanted is huge if they can get that of the fosters career they may never look for their mothers love, but if they are shipped from home to home and only used by the foster career for money (some foster careers not all) then I feel the child future will be hard.
Exactly Colin some people are beyond help, evil will always be evil unfortunately the human race churns out the odd one every now and then, and unfortunately that evil can spawn innocent children.
Well said
Poor kids
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